Ten Galactic Civilizations III changes coming in early 2019

Ten Galactic Civilizations III changes coming in early 2019

If you guys thought that GalCiv III: Crusade was...ahem...a "game changer" you're going to (we hope) really like what we have planned for the Winter 2019 expansion we're working on. We'll be announcing it relatively soon so I won't spoil it here.

Here, however, are our general objectives we want to accomplish:

Fewer clicks with the UI to get things done.

Making really big maps more enjoyable to play on. It's one of our strongest features and they're annoying (IMO).

Bringing back beloved alien species.

Pacing. There is a lot of...emptiness between turns 25 to 75 which is a turn off for many new players and really needs to be addressed.

Multiplayer. While few people play it multiplayer, we think some of our other changes will make the game a lot more skill based.

AI. If you got 3.2 you probably noticed a substantial AI improvement. But we have other improvements in the works. I really want to write up a full on doc on the challenges of AI. Nearly every suggestion we get from players on AI is something the AI already does. The AI does "all the things" but because it doesn't "cheat" (contrary to what some people say) it does not always have the information that players think it has and makes poor choices.

More strategic choices. What I mean by this is that there are certain strategies that are just plain "better" for winning. Rather than nerfing those paths, we are implementing new, equally powerful paths towards success. This is harder than it may sound because we have to code the AI to effectively use these paths.

Tech tree overhaul. This will only be in the expansion because if it were put into the base game a lot of people would get upset I suspect. There are a lot of new techs but most of the "specialist" techs are being removed. Why? They're just not very interesting. A 10% bump in something is enough enough to justify the clickity click click of the tech. Every tech should have meat to it.

Visual pass. We have a lot of good graphics in GalCiv III. And we have some terrible, terrible graphics. Our procedurally generated planets might have looked good in 2012 when they were being developed but...oye. They hurt my eyes.

Fleet battle viewer updates. First, we are hiring game developers. Send us your resume. We have a lot of projects at Stardock and a lot of the time, we can't put engineers on something simply because there are no people free. The fleet battles area of the game is something we really do want to improve but we can't because of lack of developers free to work on it.

Pacing. There is a lot of...emptiness between turns 25 to 75 which is a turn off for many new players and really needs to be addressed.

BEST PART OF THE GAME !! PHASE of the MOST STRATEGY . Do NOT POLL NEW PLAYERS ON how to IMPROVE A GAME, They will ALWAYS say its BORING or TOO HARD . You ask the LONG TIME PLAYERS

PACING IS CONTROLLABLE They can play on a SMALL MAP with extra fast pacing , then its like fast food.

chances are these BORED types are going to QUIT anyways.. If they are too bored let them wax the surfboard !!

Tech tree overhaul. This will only be in the expansion because if it were put into the base game a lot of people would get upset I suspect. There are a lot of new techs but most of the "specialist" techs are being removed. Why? They're just not

NOOOO just TWEAK but dont take away choices and complexity . its all about trading so you can get them all.

I agree dont remove tech specializations. Make them more creative yes. Change from one tech choice. To a path of techs that don't return you to the same path that the other choices lead. Different species need to have more varied techs different thought paths. This could be used in diplomacy to. I miss everyone having different hubs from each other that do different things differently. The hubs needed balancing instead you wrnw back to everyone having the same hub. I think the food needs fixing. Local food was better than this. The slynn, and yor would still need to be global because of how they need resources, but an easier fix would just require you to go back before arable land resource, and instead of making food a one time resource. making food a twice a year increase.

I think tech specializations is an area where the game can become a lot more interesting. I know a lot of people like to be able to get everything, and I don't mind perhaps getting a weaker version of everything--but I like the idea of being able to be highly specialized.

This is one way I think the game can better support tall civilizations. If the specializations were reworked to provide options for additional one-per-player improvements, additional terraforming options, tall empire starbase modules, one-per-player ship components, etc., then a player could choose techs that cater to a smaller/taller empire and provide a viable path toward success. Maybe also make some tall-civ government options accessible through certain techs that give a big boost but significantly restrict expansion in some way.

Right now, the game still feels a lot like you need to get the most planets or lose.

Keep tech specializations: It's the most realistic way of doing research. Ever seen the fastest fighter also carry the heaviest MOAB? A plane that can carry the heaviest MOAB that's also the fastest? Same rules apply - research is about making choices and living with them. You might be able to undo that choice, for heaps of money and time wasted, but you will not ever get both fastest and able-to-carry-the-heaviest-MOAB capability on the same plane.

As I don't do it a lot myself, can anyone tell me if you have to pay over the odds when you buy a specialized tech? If you buy it, does it open up research options in that area? If the answers are No and Yes respectively, I think it should be the other way around. Again, choices and consequences.

Maybe you could add more tech specializations, certainly if it helps making Tall as viable as Wide. In that regard, two points not related to tech specializations, others will have better ideas I'm sure, but for me:

Tourism should not be based on the amount of space you control but the quality of the planets you own. You have a 4 Planet system where each Planet is 4 PQ. And a 1 Planet system where that Planet is 22 PQ. On pure maths, 1 x 22 is better than 4 x 4, the 22 Planet should be giving your civilization more money/love/tourism. It's a better place to live/visit. Four hick planets are still hick planets. This is how Influence should work as well IMO.

Trade should also be influenced by PQ. Your higher PQ planets logically have more capacity to make and sell stuff. And if you send your freighter to a higher PQ planet owned by another civilization, that civilization can buy more stuff from you.

Ideology: Please can we end the zig-zagging between different branches? Simply "grey out" the other two branches once you've made your choice or make that alternate choice - going from Pragmatic to Malevolent, say - ruinously painful in terms of money/influence/power. You could survive it, but no one will love you anymore...

HNY everybody and thanks Stardock for all the work you guys do and the feedback you give.

As far as trading, how much you pay depends on your relationship to the opponent. specializations leads to the same tech, not a different path. I think it should.

I agree on tourism the easiest way to do this is give a bonus to the planet quality above 15 for each planet like this, also give a bonus to how much entertainment, scientific, natural wonders, certain resources ie snugglers..., and economic buildings on the planet.

As far as trade I disagree planet quality has nonething to do with it. It should be decided by factories and resources on how much stuff you can produce. Economic buildings should dictate how much stuff you can sell whichever of the two is lower. Having more goods, and resources is irrevelent if you can't sell it. Having good economics can only do so much when you can't produce anything.

Well I remembered why I also used auto resolve now when I go to the planet to place the legions I am unable to place them or cancel this attack so I am stuck until I end the game has anyone ever encountered this or have any idea why this would occur? It simply won’t let me place legions so I can attack.

Well I remembered why I also used auto resolve now when I go to the planet to place the legions I am unable to place them or cancel this attack so I am stuck until I end the game has anyone ever encountered this or have any idea why this would occur? It simply won’t let me place legions so I can attack.

There are typically 3 or 4 tiles on the planet with an outline around them, those are the tiles where you are allowed to place your legions. Click once to place a legion, twice to place two legions, etc. Experience has shown that it's usually better to place all of your invading legions on the same planet tile, as close as you can to the colony capital.

I usually see them but sometimes I don’t it won’t let me place them on the edges but I can in the middle. Not sure why so now I just save before I invade every world if needed I can just do anouther invasion and hope for better spawns not sure why it does this though.

As far as trading, how much you pay depends on your relationship to the opponent. specializations leads to the same tech, not a different path. I think it should.

I agree on tourism the easiest way to do this is give a bonus to the planet quality above 15 for each planet like this, also give a bonus to how much entertainment, scientific, natural wonders, certain resources ie snugglers..., and economic buildings on the planet.

As far as trade I disagree planet quality has nonething to do with it. It should be decided by factories and resources on how much stuff you can produce. Economic buildings should dictate how much stuff you can sell whichever of the two is lower. Having more goods, and resources is irrevelent if you can't sell it. Having good economics can only do so much when you can't produce anything.

Good points - hadn't considered that you might want to use a good PQ planet for research, etc. But obviously the higher the PQ, the higher the number of tiles where you can put those factories, entertainment buildings, economic buildings etc if you want an Economic and/or Influence planet. So, maybe the system works okay at present if it gets buffed more for a planet that's been designed to get your influence/tourism up.

Removal of tech specializations - Sorry but I did not get past this, thats all I have managed to contain from the OP, yeah its made me speechless tbh. Removal of choices from a strategy game really? Removing diplomacy options due to removal of specializations? Removal of specializing your ships/colonies due these "pointless" tech specializations? Come on man. You might find them needless or whatever but trust me those 10%'s here or 10%'s there add up, more so now with the Crusade system than before and you want to remove these. Boogles the mind!

Tech specializations. If the names, and Bonuses aren't meaningful don't remove them, but make the names meaningful, and change the bonuses to make them more meaningful. Some ideas for tech specialisation. Global warming you have an awareness of putting to much carbons into the planet. Bonuses include better fatms. Higher populations. Faster population growth. Disadvantages include lower hubs. Causing energy problems. Can use only certain fuels. Factories suffer due to environmental regulations. Approval is up because people feel good about saving the planet. Bonus to planet quality better planets. tourism is up do to better planets. More farming techs, less social manufacturing techs. More natural wonders, and bonuses to natural wonders.

Cleaning the planet planet better, but not as good as above. Global warming is not real, but why not clean the environment instead. Factories down due to regulations. Farms better. Higher populations. Raw production is up due to recycling. Economy takes a hit because everyone is reusing whenever they can. Banks are better though because there is more of a savings because everyone is buying less because of the mood of reusing. Banks better, but some of the other economic buildings are not. More farming techs, less manufacturing, and hub techs. Tourism is up because of a better planet. More natural wonders, and bonuses to natural wonders.

Not nonsense they are just trying to stifle industry. Factories are up, because of no regulations. Farms take a hit due to pollution. Population is down due to pollution. Certain resources are harder to produce. Penalties to natural wonders. And a chance that a natural wonders turns into a resource instead.

Edit

Other tech specializations.

Genetic engineering you thought computers were the wave of the future, but think again genetic engineering won out. Organic cars, and spaceships. Babies being born without birth defects. People being engineered for specific tasks...

Computers robots do everything.

Cybernetics everyone has robotic parts.

I do agree on ideologies should be more demanding, but instead of picking a choice at the beginning of the game. it should be averaged from your points based on your choices. Then adding up all the points to pick techs.

Ideologies should have names that are ideologies, not another name for good vs. evil. Benevolent vs. malevolent.

Removal of tech specializations - Sorry but I did not get past this, thats all I have managed to contain from the OP, yeah its made me speechless tbh. Removal of choices from a strategy game really? Removing diplomacy options due to removal of specializations? Removal of specializing your ships/colonies due these "pointless" tech specializations? Come on man. You might find them needless or whatever but trust me those 10%'s here or 10%'s there add up, more so now with the Crusade system than before and you want to remove these. Boogles the mind!

I'd have to agree with most players that took a stand against those pre-announced changes to this very specific feature.It has slowly become a cool "concept" of the ruleset for me but, still far above any concerns for other stability issues caused by their principle.

Strategy wise.. they simply add some worthy depth to the whole research quest trajectory while providing interesting options to various key elements like trade & (newest) government edges we (nearly always!) should focus on while AI begins interacting with us. It's as if the dynamics of negotiation would just be ruined by a lack of any specialized decisions. Clearly, there is a pattern with these tiny Yellow Stars when they are trying to find an edge on the bargain table.

Much more aspects need be addressed, IMO; silly offers & demands by AI.. persistent overloads of resources.. our own lack of a direct proposal "What would you give for X+Y?".. cancel with 0 rather than having to scroll through in certain cases.. and so on.

Most of what I find I would like to see improved I outlined in this post a few weeks ago... Galactic Civilizations III Feedback (How to Make This Game Great Again!!)In addition some ideas on how to improve game pacing for mid to late game without taking options away from the player. Keep the dynamic of the game just make it easier and quicker to make those choices and automate them, when the player would like to.

I guess I didn't read the tech overhaul the same way, I thought it was just going to be revisited to make it more balanced. I agree removal of the tech specializations would be a bad idea. I personally love the -10% mass, then usually trade for others as available.

I guess I didn't read the tech overhaul the same way, I thought it was just going to be revisited to make it more balanced. I agree removal of the tech specializations would be a bad idea. I personally love the -10% mass, then usually trade for others as available.

I love the choices between things like mass, maintenance, etc.--but one of the best examples of a meaningful choice is the specialization that gives administrators and a building (Diplomatic Specialization). Another good example is the option between production vs. food (Planetary Specialization).

In my opinion, I would like to see more of these kinds of choices and even more high-contrast options. As some examples of what this could look like, consider military tech. Specializations could be given that offer particular special components--perhaps one per civ or not--that are then balanced with particularly powerful bonuses as other options. Or make government types accessible through specialization. I already mentioned in an earlier post in this thread that specializations could be used to make special planet improvements available (tall civ) with the alternative options being more broadly applied (wide civ).

I guess I say this all to reiterate that what makes GalCivIII special, in my mind, is the options it gives players on how to play the game. More meaningful options equals a more meaningful game experience. Please don't take away specialization--tweak them, fix them, make them more interesting.

also make some meaning to all planet for example all Uninhabitable give some meaning to them and also making some way of making some of them habitable is a good idea

i love Galactic civilization III with all dlc and expansion this game become probably the best X4 galactic strategy game in past 10 years and i don't see any new game like it so please keep up making it great

I am ok with the removal of specializations as long as you add in fresh and new choices. If you are going to do the last Hurrah of Gal Civ III lets make 'radical' changes.

Replace the current 3 way attack/counter system with a 5 way system.

Bring back Unique race based only weapons and defenses.

restructure the entire tech tree so things are a bit more clear

Colonization

Warfare

Infrastructure

Government/Politics

Add more snarky dialogue. Get Paul and others together for 'Margarita' night with the intent on implementing those fabulous one liners both Gal Civ II and III are famous for.

Script the ai so it favors some weapons and defenses due to its nature. This was a predictable feature in Gal Civ II but the ai would eventually change its favor to counter the player. I hated and loved this. Damn Yor.....

Get back in the code and optimize the engine a bit so late game is smoother. Note: this does not apply to me at all and I play on insane maps with super full stars n planets, however the vast majority of players can always use a boost to performance optimization.